Jordan Spieth sounds pretty thrilled after a bad week of golf

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As Jordan Spieth walked off the 18th green Sunday at Quail Hollow, the natural emotion would be one of disappointment.

Spieth, after all, had a chance this week with a win in the PGA Championship to become the youngest player ever to complete the career Grand Slam. He fell quite a bit short of that, finishing the week 2-over after shooting a final-round 70 Sunday.

He was never in contention from the start of the week and never mounted a run.

But Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, would have none of his player feeling disappointment as the two made their way off the golf course.

“Hey, I just want you to know that’s a great year in the majors,’’ Greller told Spieth.

Spieth, who’s fresh off his British Open victory last month at Royal Birkdale, understood.

“Buddy,’’ he told Greller, “we won one of the majors. I understand that’s a great year in the majors.’’

“He almost thinks I’m disappointed maybe with how this week went,’’ Spieth said of Greller. “But we won a major. We had a chance to win at Augusta, too [he finished tied for 11th]. The U.S. Open [tied for 35th] and here … I didn’t have a chance to win, which is a downer.

“But overall, when I look back on the year in the major championships, shoot, it was fantastic. If I did this every year, I would go down as the greatest ever to play the game. I need to look at it that way and I am.’’

The 24-year-old Spieth referenced Tiger Woods’ 2013 season, during which he won five tournaments, but because none of those five was a major his year was viewed by many critics as a letdown.

“He won five events, including a Players [Championship],’’ Spieth said. “A Players Championship is in our minds up there and may as well be equal with the majors. If I didn’t have a chance to win a major in a year then I would be disappointed at the end of the year. Winning them is so difficult to do that you can have a fantastic year without winning a major.’’

Spieth said he plans to rest for a few days before gearing back up for the FedExCup series of tournaments, which begins with the Northern Trust at Glen Oaks on Long Island in two weeks.

“I’m going to approach the first two [FedEx Cup] events trying to obviously win but looking to kind of crescendo into East Lake [at the Tour Championship] and peak there and consider East Lake a major at this point as far as our preparation goes,’’ he said.

This week just didn’t come together, he said, as he couldn’t finish on the green.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot out of this other than just execution on the greens,’’ Spieth said. “I felt like I struck the ball well — not quite where it has been for the last month or so but that’s been phenomenal. I’ve been driving the ball really well the last two weeks, which is better than even the Open or Hartford (both wins). So it’s just a matter of making putts.”